HTC sales down $1 billion from a year ago

This entry was posted on June 11, 2012 by Pure Mobile.

By Aldo Panessisdi

With six consecutive months of record revenue in 2011 HTC cell phones and HTC tablets seemed to be having a great run. Now it looks like the Taiwan-based manufacturer has run off the road. HTC just reported May sales figures that are down roughly $1 billion, or 26.13% from the same month a year ago.

With to the launch of its latest flagship smartphone, the HTC One X, HTC was expecting better results. HTC reduced its second quarter revenue target by 13.3% to $3.03 billion. The company’s original forecast had predicted second quarter 2012 revenue of $3.5 billion, up from $2.2 billion in the first quarter.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley summed up the situation to investors on Wednesday: “While our checks indicated positive sales trends for HTC’s new One series smartphones, overall weaker sales in Europe, a charge to clear older inventory, and U.S. Customs delays led to softer Q2 sales. With our checks indicating strong initial HTC EVO sales at Sprint, we anticipate an improving One Series sales mix in Q3/12 that should have a positive impact to gross and operating margins.”

Walkley still assigns HTC stock a “Buy” rating with a price target of NT$503. “Due to our lowered HTC smartphone estimates for 2012 and 2013, primarily for the Europe market, we are lowering our 2012 EPS estimate from NT$44.90 to NT$34.75 and our 2013 estimate from NT$55.10 to NT$50.32.”

HTC ‘s future looks bright. The company’s new One S smartphone is getting good reviews. T-Mobile’s version of the One X launched in April, and now that the phones have cleared a hang-up in U.S. Customs, One X will soon be available from AT&T. The One X is also in Sprint stores as the EVO 4G LTE.